Women Behind the Magic: Kappy Thorsen Shares Her Journey From Family Business to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

When guests visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, now open at Disneyland Resort, they can experience everything from out-of-this-world galactic treats to thrilling flights on the iconic Millennium Falcon, and even mingle with local Batuuan residents! These residents bring the land to life and selecting our cast members to fill those roles was a crucial element, one that was led by General Manager of Disneyland Park – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Kappy Thorsen. We’re eager to share Kappy’s Disney journey and her work that helped bring the land to life in this installment of #WomenBehindtheMagic!

Kappy leads cast members and teams across the Disneyland Resort to create exciting experiences for guests each and every day. One of her most recent experiences even took her to a galaxy far, far away as Kappy spent the last two years preparing for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

But before she started helping create the planet Batuu, Kappy grew up working for her family at Roaring Camp Railroads, a historic tourist railroad in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Whether she was scooping ice cream, selling tickets, or helping to clean restrooms, she “did it all” and took great pride in being a part of the family business. In fact, it was working with her family’s business that first sparked her interest in theme park operations. Each year, Kappy and her family would make the more than six-hour drive to visit the Disneyland Resort – a place Kappy knew she always wanted to work ever since she was a child.

“Working for Disney has always been a dream of mine,” she shared. “My father was inspired by Disneyland – he was creative, artistic, and had an entrepreneurial spirit. I tried to emulate him from a very young age.”

Heavily influenced by her parents and love of art, design and business, Kappy earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from San Jose State University. Upon graduation, she planned on applying for Disneyland in one of these fields. However, her father unexpectedly passed away, and her mother took over the family business which instantly changed Kappy’s path.

“I put my Disney dream on hold to assist my family. I watched my mom become an influential female business leader in the community,” she reflected.

More than a decade later, Kappy returned to pursuing her Disney dream. She applied for and accepted her first role at Disneyland park as the assistant manager responsible for the iconic steam trains. As she began this role Kappy was inspired by her mother’s leadership, something she continues to be motivated by today.

“I often refer to my mom as my ‘hero’ because of her great courage, outstanding business achievements and character,” she says. “I would not be where I am today without her as my role model.”

In her 20 year Disney career, Kappy has had various opportunities to advance her career across the resort, including attractions, guest relations, main entrance, transportation and parking, line of business, food and beverage, custodial and retail.

“Each role taught me something new and challenged me in different ways, which prepared me for today. Every day is an adventure,” she shared.

One of her biggest adventures to date was her role in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. A lot of coordination, preparation and partnerships were required to open a land of this scale. Preparing leaders and cast members for their new roles as citizens of Batuu was a monumental undertaking for the operations team and countless partners, of which she is very proud. Her days preparing for the opening of the land were often varied with different responsibilities. Regardless of the projects, one element always remained the same, interacting with cast members – the most rewarding part of her day.

“Our cast’s dedication, passion and love of the Disney brand and Star Wars franchise is contagious,” she says. “They put everything into creating magic for our guests, which is amazing to watch! When visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, guests can interact with cast members in a whole new way – learn their stories, explore and play throughout the land like never before.”

For Kappy seeing our cast members fully immersed in the story, interacting with the guests, was quite a memorable moment.

“It was an emotional experience on many levels,” she explained. “My team and I helped bring Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to life for our guests. A dream job come true.”

Kappy is one of the many women making magic for Disney guests and fans around the world. Guests can meet the citizens of Batuu when they visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge now open at Disneyland Resort. Stay tuned for next week’s installment in our #WomenBehindtheMagic series as we share more stories of the amazing women who helped make Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge a reality!

Welcome to Batuu, a trading post at the edge of the galaxy where smugglers, bounty hunters, and rogue adventurers swap stories, food, and goods. Like any good tourist, you're going to need a guide book to lead you through your visit. Here is your official guide.

In 2019, Disney opened a new Star Wars addition to their parks: The planet Batuu. Star Wars fans now have access to an authentic, in-world experience unlike anything they have ever seen before! This official guide to Batuu is written completely in-world, as if you are a visitor from another part of the galaxy, looking for recommendations on where to eat, sleep, and what to do during your trip to this planet. The guide also provides itineraries and descriptions of weekend trips "Beyond Batuu"; getaways to nearby planets and environs.

The guide features :

- Full-color illustrations and maps

- Original content from Lucasfilm

- An in-world experience like no other

Whether strolling in The Galaxy's Edge 15-acre park or simply being an armchair traveler, this immersive guide will delight any Star Wars fan.

In March media giant Disney enchanted investors and fans when it announced that its long-awaited theme park lands based on sci-fi movie series Star Wars would open months earlier than expected. It took much more than the wave of a magic wand to pull it off as Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid report.

With the grand title of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the lands, which are located at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida, have a suitably blockbuster scale. At 14 acres they are Disney’s biggest-ever single-themed land expansions and, according to a report by USA Today, each is estimated to have cost around $1 billion.

The two lands have been in development since 2014 and were expected to open in fall with two cutting-edge rides. However, in March Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger announced that “in light of the tremendous demand, we’re going to let guests explore both lands a bit earlier than originally planned. I am happy to announce that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is going to open up in Disneyland on May 31st and in Disney World on August 29th.”

The tighter deadlines meant that only one of the two rides would be ready in time for the premieres of the new lands. However there was no danger of this bringing dark clouds to Disney’s fantasy worlds because Galaxy’s Edge has a magic touch which ensured that it would be a star attraction no matter what.

Speaking at the land’s glitzy opening in California in May, Iger revealed how high he set the standards for Galaxy’s Edge “Don’t be ambitious. Be the most ambitious you've ever been,” is the instruction he gave to Disney’s Imagineers, the wizards who design its theme parks. It only takes a few minutes in the new land to see that they granted Iger his wish.

Disneyland is famous for its bold colours and cartoon-like structures. The pink cylindrical spires of Sleeping Beauty castle, the exaggerated elephants in the Dumbo The Flying Elephant ride and the sloping white roof of the Space Mountain roller coaster all spring to mind. In comparison, Galaxy’s Edge is a whole new world.

Under the leadership of Bob Chapek, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman, the company is focused on finding the perfect mix of classic and new guest experiences.

“Walt Disney famously said that ‘Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.’ With Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we’re honoring Walt’s vision for his parks, and giving guests a whole new world of Disney magic,” says Chapek.

When Star Wars was released in 1977 its realism captured the imagination of movie-goers. Up to then, sci-fi films tended to have a sterile appearance with spotless floors, strip lighting and gaudily-colored costumes. Star Wars was a game-changer as its worlds looked lived in.

Dusty boxes sat in the corners of rooms on the spaceships, wires hung out of the walls inside houses and the futuristic vehicles were battered and rusty. Galaxy’s Edge uses every trick in Disney’s spell book to bring that atmosphere into the real world.

Many theme park attractions boast about having attention to detail in all directions but fail to live up to it. At Galaxy’s Edge it’s no exaggeration. Before you even get into the land there’s a taste of things to come as alien-like screeches and growls echo through the entrance tunnel. Next you realize that droid tracks are embedded in the sand-colored floor. Up ahead is a mud hut which is clearly meant to be a house in a space-age colony as there’s an entry pad next to the metallic door. Windchimes hang outside and a futuristic broom is even standing in a bucket.

Look up and you see the tips of soaring rocky spires that look like they stretch far into the horizon. It’s actually design trickery where the spires get smaller and paler in the distance to make it seem like they are further away than they actually are.

Then comes the grand reveal as you round a corner and see the base of the rocky spires which has a hangar carved into it with a full-size version of the Millennium Falcon sitting out front. It’s actually the entrance to a high-tech simulator which puts guests at the controls of the iconic Star Wars spaceship but there isn’t a sign for the ride hanging outside.

Galaxy’s Edge is meant to be an actual Star Wars world and Disney takes this objective very seriously. It hasn’t just named the world Batuu but has also devised detailed background about it being a port at the edge of the galaxy (hence the name of the land).

The ride doesn’t have a sign because on Batuu it’s actually a hangar, not a theme park attraction. Likewise, the signs for the shops and restaurants are all in the Star Wars alphabet of Aurebesh, not English.

As we have reported, even the Coca-Cola bottles have logos in Aurebesh and are spherical with an angular cap on the top making them look like mini versions of loveable droid BB-8. You’ll soon find yourself trying to rub off the scuff marks on the bottles only find that they are permanent.

In-keeping with the ethos of the Star Wars saga, everything in Galaxy's Edge looks a little beat up giving the impression that it has been around for a while. It couldn’t feel further from the bright colours and roller coasters in the rest of Disneyland.

There are cracks around the doors which silently glide open like in the films. Burned-out droids, chipped statues and crates of helmets stand in the corners of plazas whilst torn garlands are draped above. They are covered with burn-marks giving a hint of the laser battles from days gone by that are meant to have taken place there.

Mock boilers have soot-stained walls above them and even the restrooms have artificially rusty pipes and dirty lights. No stone has been left unturned. The craggy rockface isn’t just weathered but covered with dried out plants and has rubble below which is meant to have rolled down over time.

The centrepiece of one of the food and beverage outlets is an elaborate display of a droid turning a spit with an alien creature on it which is being roasted by the engine from a podracer. Smoke billows out of it and grease has even been painted on the railings. All that’s missing is intense heat because the meat is actually cooked in a kitchen behind the scenes.

Mobiles made from bits of space junk hang from the ceilings in shops which are tucked into alcoves in a souk. You won’t find the famous plastic Star Wars figures inside. Instead, there are cute dolls of classic characters which look like they have been hand-crafted by local artisans for their alien offspring. The toys aren’t Star Wars-branded and you won’t hear the classic theme tube belting out in this ultra-real land.

“It seemed so crazy in the beginning to say that we are going to have hundreds of new products in nine or ten unique spaces and nowhere are we going to use the word ‘Star Wars’ on products,” says Brad Schoenberg, director of merchandise, strategy and new parks experience development. “But when you are living in a Star Wars space it’s the one thing you don’t need and actually a visit to the set was a great reminder.”

Schoenberg explains that the one thing the characters in the film “are not aware of is that they are in a Star Wars movie so we have really held that story true...‘Star Wars’ are two of the words you will not see.” However, Galaxy’s Edge is packed with so many hints to the films that it’s like a shrine to the sci-fi series.

The one-eyed alien from the trash compactor in the first movie emerges from a water fountain and a cabinet in a shop is home to a mini version of the tentacled monster that eats big baddie Boba Fett in Return of the Jedi.

The buildings all have a familiar Star Wars look. There are huge circular turrets with space ships on top, bases hidden in the forest and towering arches. They are all replete with antennas, pipes and vents on the sides. However, they aren’t copied from one location in a Star Wars movie and there is good reason for this.

“One of the things that we decided very early on was to build a new place. A place that was not a memory of somebody else’s Star Wars story. It’s not a place that we had visited in one of the early films. We know those places. We know the stories that happened there. We know the characters’ experiences there and we know that we are not part of those stories,” says Scott Trowbridge, portfolio creative executive and studio leader at Walt Disney Imagineering. “This is a place that is purposely-built so that you can live your own Star Wars story and become an active participant in the world of Star Wars.”

It explains why the land has the kind of detail you would usually find on a movie set. In this case the guests are the actors and they are writing their own script. “It wasn’t about specifically living out someone else’s journey but really the land itself serving as the backdrop for your own personal story,” says Carrie Beck, vice president of the Story Group at Lucasfilm, the Disney-owned company which created Star Wars.

“Having this new place allows this sense of discovery and you really get to find out more about things you may not have known about previously no matter how much of a Star Wars fan you might be.” That’s not all.

Being a completely new location means that guests don’t need to be experts in certain films in order to enjoy the experience. It also allows Disney to incorporate future Star Wars characters and storylines into the land without worrying about continuity conflicts.

“It is a place that we can continue to update and refresh as our relationship with Star Wars and the characters progresses,” says Trowbridge. “Right now we are all very invested in a certain set of characters and a certain storyline which is this Skywalker saga, that has been part of our lives for so long. But we may make other choices down the road about other destinations and other characters to have relationships with.” They may not be far far away.

In March Oscar Isaac, who plays Star Wars pilot Poe Dameron, confirmed that The Rise of Skywalker, which will be released in December, will bring an end to the 42-year Skywalker storyline. “It is the end of the entire Skywalker saga. Nine stories. This is the culmination of the thing,” Isaac said on The Today Show.

Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 and, as we revealed last year, it has made back at least a quarter of the purchase price from the profits of the Star Wars movies it has made since then. More movies are coming from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as a new live-action series called The Mandalorian, which will air on the upcoming Disney+ streaming service. Theme parks are crucial to driving the franchise forward.

New rides draw in guests and promote the movies that they are based on. At the same time, the merchandise and DVDs of the movies on sale outside the parks attract guests to the parks and the cycle begins again. “We see that the sooner you can get intellectual property to move from screen to a physical environment, the sooner you reap the rewards and the larger those rewards may be,” says Brian Sands, vice president at themed entertainment consultancy AECOM.

It reflects the trend in the percentage of Disney’s operating income from parks and resorts. As shown in the graph below, it increased from 21.3% in 2009 to 28.5% a decade later when it hit $4.5 billion. In contrast, the percentage of Disney’s operating income that comes from its media networks, including ESPN and ABC, fell from 71.4% to 42.2% over that period, reportedly due to cord-cutting and rising programming costs.

It explains why Disney is investing heavily in theme park attractions based on its film franchises. Last year Disney World opened a Toy Story Land following the launch of one in 2017 themed to space adventure Avatar. Next up are homes for super heroes like Spider-Man and the Avengers at Disney California Adventure, Disneyland Paris’ Walt Disney Studios park and Hong Kong Disneyland as well as a Zootopia-themed land at Shanghai Disneyland.

More is coming to Disney World as well including an innovative ride based on computer animated Oscar-winner Ratatouille and roller coasters themed to sci-fi movies Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy. They have a high yardstick to reach.

Galaxy’s Edge takes synergy to a new level as Disney has released a comic series based on Batuu and one of the animatronic aliens created for the land was referenced in last year’s movie Solo: A Star Wars Story. To ensure Galaxy’s Edge fits into this universe, Disney Imagineers consulted the same research sources that were used during the development of the Star Wars movies.

They visited the private archives of Lucasfilm’s founder George Lucas in California to study original Star Wars concept artwork created by Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who helped shape the look of the movies. They also went on research trips to Turkey and Morocco which is near to Tunisia where a large part of the first Star Wars movie was filmed. The Imagineers even took rubbings from the feet of the R2-D2 droid used in the movies and used them to create the tracks embedded in the paths on Batuu.

“The trick to designing Star Wars is that 80% or 90% of it is real and the 10% or 15% is the freshness that takes people into the Star Wars universe,” says Doug Chiang, vice president and executive creative director at Lucasfilm. Chiang began working with Lucas on the movies in 1995 and says “you would think, OK, Star Wars, everything is invented. Everything is fresh. Let’s just start from nothing. And that’s actually the wrong way to go. You do have to start with something and we start with real locations.”

Chiang explains that the starting point for Galaxy's Edge was deciding “what is that distinct geological language that will define Batuu and we found it in the petrified forest in Arizona where we had these giant spires. And we thought ‘that is very distinct, how do we make it Star Wars?’ And the 10% or 15% is just change the scale. Make it dramatic. Make it a world wide ecosystem and that gives you the Star Wars-ness yet grounds it.”

The Imagineers had to go a stage further which even the film-makers didn’t need to do. “Often when we are designing movie sets or locations they are false obviously because that is movie-making. It’s kind of make-believe. You are actually experiencing that from a very specific point of view of the director. Here, the point of view is you,” says Chiang. “You can look round the corner, you can look underneath the table, you can see where the wires connect and it all makes sense.” It has a magic touch.

According to the 2018 Global Theme and Amusement Park Outlook report from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), “an emerging trend is the growing preference among consumers to spend on experiences rather than products. This is evident in the cinema and live music markets, where people are willing to spend more for out-of-home experiences...This same trend is believed to also be contributing to ongoing growth for theme parks, which market their unique experiences.”

The trend, which is known as the experience economy, is reflected in the results of a consumer survey from management consultancy McKinsey. It showed that between 2014 and 2016 personal-consumption expenditures (PCE) on experience-related services - such as visiting theme parks and traveling - have grown more than 1.5 times faster than overall personal-consumption spending and nearly 4 times faster than expenditures on goods.

The survey found that social media appears to have helped accelerate the growing demand for experiences as “Facebook and Instagram likes and creative snaps are now the ultimate social currency for millions of Americans, especially millennials, and the quest for likes requires a constant stream of new shareable content in the form of stories and pictures. Experiences play into this thirst for content because they are more likely to lead to such stories and pictures than the purchase of a new product would be.”

It adds that “keeping up with the Joneses used to be about wanting to own the same expensive products your friends or neighbors did. But with more consumers opting for experiences - whether that means seeing the musical Hamilton or visiting Hanoi - and sharing their stories and pictures online, people feel peer pressure to join in or keep up. This anxiety is so deeply embedded in the social fiber of millennials that they have given it a nickname: FOMO [Fear Of Missing Out]. The term was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2013.”

It has given a glow to the theme park industry as, unlike cinema and live music, it has no in-home equivalent. In summary, posting photos on social media from fairytale locations is becoming increasingly important for consumers, particularly millennials. The more exotic the location, the more guests it attracts and the more photos they post of it online. This then drives more traffic and the cycle begins again. It is driven by attention to detail.

As with a movie set, it is essential that theme parks don’t shatter the illusion of being in a fantasy land as it could prevent photos taken there from going viral. If Disney had put a hot dog stand or a phone booth on the alien landscape of Batuu if could have attracted criticism. Instead the landscape has become the star attraction and made Galaxy’s Edge the most ground-breaking theme park development since the doors to Disneyland itself swung open in 1955.

Never before has a landscape been as much of an attraction as the ride inside it. Galaxy’s Edge is more of a living museum than a theme park attraction and guests aren’t just passive explorers. Using the Play Disney Parks mobile app they can hack into most of the memorabilia there to make ship engines whirr and droids bleep. It also puts visitors in the thick of the action as virtual Star Wars characters text them with invitations to take on jobs throughout the land.

The app also allows guests to tap into Star Wars text conversations, translate Aurebesh and fight the evil First Order by solving digital puzzles to lock them out of local door pads. Guests don’t even need the force to battle the crowds as another app gives them a spot in a virtual line to get into the land if it reaches capacity at Disneyland.

In future, the immersive experience won’t even end when guests leave the park as Disney is building a full-service Star Wars-themed hotel near to its new land in Florida. Befitting the attention to detail of its neighbor, the hotel will reportedly have its own Star Wars characters and storylines as well as a starship design.

Purists may say that Star Wars doesn’t fit in Disneyland’s cartoony world of whimsy but actually it fulfils one of Walt Disney’s own objectives.

The amusement parks of Walt’s era had few rides that parents could enjoy with their children so he dreamed up Disneyland. Its cuddly characters and roller coasters have made it a mecca for kids since then but Galaxy’s Edge appeals just as much to adults. Testimony to this, in response to a video of the Millennium Falcon ride on social media, user Marc Wood commented that “theme parks are not normally my thing, but I would love to have a go on this.” That really is a happy ending.

One of the incredible things about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that visitors to the planet Batuu admire is the amazing landscape and rockwork throughout the land. When we set out to make a real place in the Star Wars galaxy with its own unique geography, we came up with a planet that thousands of years ago was covered by giant trees, many of them thousands of feet tall. Although it is not quite known what happened to these trees over the centuries, over time they became the petrified spires that dominate the landscape today. Black Spire Outpost even takes its name from one such spire, darker than all the rest and located in the center of the outpost.

It takes a talented team to create the more than 200,000 square feet of amazing artificial rockwork throughout the land. Zsolt Hormay is a creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering with many years of design experience and oversees the teams that have built some of the amazing landmarks of Disney’s theme parks including Typhoon Lagoon, the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Cadillac Mountain Range of Cars Land and the otherworldly look of Pandora- The World of Avatar. Zsolt and his team of talented international artists brought their level of craftmanship and artistry to Batuu.

I asked Zsolt to answer a few questions about what it takes not only for his team to create this beautiful rockwork, but also about the themed finishes on the buildings in the land that give Black Spire Outpost and the rest of the planet their distinctive look.

You oversee the Themed Finishes studio. What does that include in addition to creating rockwork ?

The Themed Finishes Art Studio consists of four major disciplines including Rockwork, Character Façade, Character Paint and Hardscape. Also, starting on Pandora – The World of Avatar, we added exterior Artificial Foliage to the Studio as well.

What makes a themed finish believable ?

The goal is to have our guests NOT question the finishes but accept them as real for what they are in the context of the storyline. All the tricks that we have developed over the years to fool the eye – the layering of textures and paint techniques, aging, adding moss and lichens, using translucent materials to make the black spires look like gigantic pieces of obsidian, paying extra attention to the hardscape materials to support the narrative, just to mention a few – if the guests don’t question the finishes at all, then we are successful!

For the rockwork creation (more than 200,000 square feet of rockwork), how big was your team and how long were you all working on this ?

Between the two coasts we had about 110 people working on the finishes including field art directors and artisans. I personally have been working on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in both California and Florida since the very first 1:100 inch scale model was produced about five years ago. Most of my team joined the project about two years ago when the field installation began.

What were some of the inspirations for creating the rockwork ?

We wanted to make sure that we created a landscape that is undoubtedly Star Wars and does not remind our guests of any other land that was created previously. We knew that we had to have some vertical elements as a unique description of the landscape, thus we ended up with the idea of an ancient petrified forest. The challenge was to avoid repetition between each spire but still having them look like they belong to the same forest.

What are the steps in creating rockwork (from the model to the finished paint on the rockwork) ?

We start the dimensional design process on a small-scale (1:100 inch) model to define the layout of the land. Once that is agreed upon, we further develop the design on the next scale (1:50 inch) model that helps us to define further details and elements. The final steps of the design happen on the 1:25 inch scale model where we finalize the textures and color composition that help us to capture the final scope and the final creative intent including artificial foliage. Once the design is complete, we scan the model and create a digital mesh file that is used to drive a computer that bends the metal bars for the underlying structure.

Once we have all the challenging textures/finishes sampled, we start the full-scale installation of individual pieces (which acts almost like a 3D puzzle), then add the initial coat of cement, and ultimately our artisans hand sculpt the final cement and apply the finishing layers of paint.

How did you manage your team creating two sets of rockwork for two project sites simultaneously ?

Each site has its own unique differences that required variations in the approach – the quality of the sky and clouds, North-facing versus South-facing, how the sun travels across the landscape, etc. But we need them to tell the same story. So it was a lot of flying back and forth and a rigorous line of communication between the field art directors on the different coasts. And it was very important to regularly have the same set of eyes on both coasts to help maintain the overall creative intent.

What are you most proud of for the finished rockwork in the land ?

I think that the fact that we could once again raise the bar in terms of the quality of the sculpting and character paint is not a small feat given all the amazing projects we had done in the past. But first and foremost, I am most proud of the incredible international team that created them!

I also want to share with you a video highlighting a few of the many phases of creating the rockwork not only for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but also for some of the many other projects that Zsolt and his talented team have created for Disney’s theme parks around the world.

Women Behind the Magic: Kristina Dewberry on Finding Her Passion in Construction and Building Star Wars : Galaxy’s Edge

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is an immersive experience that transports guests to the Outer Rim planet of Batuu. Building Batuu meant doing so from the ground up and was no easy task. But with more than 20 years of onsite construction management experience and an almost ten year Walt Disney Imagineering career, Kristina Dewberry, Construction Manager for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort, was a natural fit for the job! We’re thrilled to share her story and role as part of the construction team responsible for bringing the land to life in this week’s installment of #WomenBehindtheMagic!

In her role at Disneyland Resort, Kristina manages construction site logistics and ensures the operational safety and efficiency of sites. From working on guest favorite attractions like Matterhorn Bobsleds to building Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, and also her most recent project Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, she helps build destinations that invoke magical experiences and memories.

Kristina’s journey began in a galaxy not so far away, as she grew up loving all things Star Wars from a young age. As a child, she recalls that girls were told that math and handiwork were for boys, but Kristina didn’t let that stop her when it came to her affinity for the historically male-dominated field of construction. Instead, she drew inspiration from iconic Princess Leia that she shouldn’t let anyone stop her from doing what she loved.

Growing up, Kristina spent a lot of time helping her dad with home projects and even had her own tool belt! In fact, it was an early family construction project of building a shed in their backyard that led her to fall in love with construction.

“My brother and I each got a tool belt, a pouch full of nails and a measuring tape. Dad taught us how to measure twice, cut once, Mom taught us the fine art of painting and my little sister brought us lemonade,” she shared. “Looking back, it was the tiniest little shed, but it lasted for years and it gave us a sense of pride that we all made it together.”

In her teenage years, she had the opportunity to take her skills outside of her own home and helped re-roof neighbors’ houses because she always loved building things that would enhance people’s lives.

From there, Kristina knew that she wanted to spend her time on job sites, and obtained several degrees in construction management including an associate’s degree from Cincinnati State Technical and a Bachelor of Science from Northern Kentucky University.

Now, she spends her days working on various Disney sites and enjoys that her role encourages her to be a problem solver and provides the opportunity to bring people together from different parts of a project, and even around the world. On any given day, Kristina leads tasks that can range from managing safety training protocol to handling construction material deliveries, and even coordinating the site removal of construction debris. But when it comes to what skills she finds helpful, Kristina says that keeping a drive and ambition are necessary to growing her own skillset and helps teams continue to challenge themselves.

“If you hear someone – or yourself – say ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it,’ you should take a step back,” she explains. “You shouldn’t be doing things the exact same way you did a year ago, but be taking in new technology and adding to your skillset.”

And of course, Kristina aims to always keep up a positive attitude and sense of humor. Construction sites can be stressful, but with the help of her “Boss Mode” music playlist, full of empowering and upbeat tunes, she strives to always find the fun in her work and encourages her team to follow suit.

“Keeping joy in your heart and moving forward with each new challenge is much easier when you have a twinkle in your eye,” she notes.

For a lifelong Star Wars fan like Kristina, keeping that joy wasn’t hard when going to work meant going to create the historic land that is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

“To be asked to join the team creating this land really struck me as an epic adventure,” she says. “Walking through the land and watching the project grow from the first day to now being a finished land, ready for guests, is an incredible feeling.”

Being able to say “wow, look at what we’ve been able to create,” is awe-inspiring to her. As a woman in construction, Kristina wants other women to know that this career path is absolutely within their grasp.

“There is an important place for women in the construction industry that extends beyond simply swinging a hammer,” she says.

“A lot of women don’t even consider construction because they think it’s not within their reach,” she says, but notes that with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, she’s worked with more women than ever before. “It’s really enlightening to see that.”

Kristina’s favorite piece of wisdom she would impart on anyone who may be considering a career in construction is a motto she keeps on the wall in her own kitchen.

“It’ll cost nothing to dream, and everything not to,” she shares. “If you see anything in the construction field that you find interesting, you owe it to yourself to find out more. Find an ally, someone to help you get started on your search. Construction may not be for you – but it just might be the most rewarding work you’ll ever do.”

Guests can see Kristina’s work at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, now open at Disneyland Resort. And there is even more to look forward to with the upcoming opening on August 29 at Walt Disney World Resort! Stay tuned as we look forward to sharing more stories of the amazing #WomenBehindtheMagic with you over the coming months!

Since opening on May 31, visitors to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland park have had the opportunity to step inside the largest single-themed land in Disney Parks history. Guests are raving about many immersive experiences to explore on the remote planet of Batuu, including blasting across the galaxy aboard Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – already one of the Disneyland Resort’s top-rated attractions.

Earlier this week, we welcomed the one millionth member of Hondo Ohnaka’s flight crew to take the controls of the Millennium Falcon!

Disney cast members who helped make the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge a success were on hand to welcome the Ridgeway family from Ocean Springs, Miss. Jonathan Ridgeway, 8, climbed aboard the “fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy” along with mom Becky, dad Roger and brother Logan, 4.

The family spent some time in the ship’s main hold and lounge, where they sat at the famous Dejarik table and met a surprise guest, Chewbacca. Then, Jonathan settled into the cockpit as a co-pilot of the Falcon. Afterwards, the family was treated to Blue and Green Milk for a celebratory toast! Let’s take a look :